Irma pushes Florida’s poor closer to the edge of ruin
IMMOKALEE, Fla. — Larry and Elida Dimas didn’t have much to begin with, and Hurricane Irma left them with even less.
The storm peeled open the roof of the old mobile home where they live with their 18-year-old twins, and it destroyed another one they rented to migrant workers in Immokalee, one of Florida’s poorest communities. Someone from the government already has promised aid, but Dimas’ chin quivers at the thought of accepting it.
“I don’t want the help,” said Larry Dimas, 55. “But I need it.”
Dimas is one of millions of Floridians who live in poverty, and an untold number of them have seen their lives up-ended by Irma. Their options, already limited, were narrowed even further when the hurricane destroyed possessions, increased expenses and knocked them out of work.